The Hindu : Drilling of borewells in full swing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Drilling of borewells in full swing

By K.V.S. Madhav

HYDERABAD May 1. The place is filled with smoke and the incessant drone of the drilling machines numbs the mind. Borewells, the fountains of life for Hyderabadis this summer and a bane for groundwater experts, continue to be sunk everywhere.

While the Commercial Taxes Minister and Chairman of the Hyderabad district Water Conservation Mission, K. Vijayarama Rao, waxed eloquent about imposing a permanent ban on borewell drilling in areas where the groundwater level had declined sharply, the operations continue incessantly, particularly commercial exploitation. And there is no sign of the ban.

The places referred for a ban include Banjara Hills, Ameerpet, S.R. Nagar, Erragadda, Marredpally and other densely populated areas where the groundwater level had plummeted below the 20-metre mark. ``There is no plan of imposing a ban on drilling activity this season given the bleak water supply position,'' an official of the HMWSSB maintained, notwithstanding the mission's repeated advocating of a ban from time to time.

While the board supplies 130 mgd of water drawn from the three drinking water sources for the twin cities after Osmansagar had dried up completely, the rest is met with by groundwater alone.

The district authorities empowered to check the commercial exploitation of groundwater had issued notices to 47 individuals in areas like Saidabad, Ameerpet, S.R. Nagar, Erragadda and Marredpally.

"But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The process that has been initiated should be sustained for discernible results,'' the official said.

The board officials themselves are in a soup, besieged as they were with demands from various places, including those where the groundwater levels had declined sharply, and a ban on drilling activity was considered for as many as 734 new borewells.

There are as many as 4,800 useful borewells and 4,648 working ones of the board while another 150 and odd are under repair.

As many as 1,058 borewells have completely dried up. While the number of borewells owned by private individuals is not known, even a modest estimate would put it in lakhs.

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